Noctambule: Marla Fibish And Bruce Victor To Perform At Charles And Myrtle’s Coffeehouse

Touring from San Francisco, Marla Fibish and Bruce Victor are Noctambule, French for 'night-owl.' Their unique presentation encompasses poetry about the night, set to their original music, Irish traditional music and original tunes. Their music is rendered with lush beauty, sensitivity and humor on an unusual array of strings - various guitars in varied tunings, mandola, mandolin, tenor guitar, and their blended voices.

In performance, Bruce and Marla take all comers on a fun and varied musical ramble, blending their diverse backgrounds in sometimes surprising ways. You'll hear lilting and sometimes driving Irish tunes, whiffs of Motown, beautiful airs, poignant and funny songs, and be invited to join them on their musical explorations into the night. More at www.noctambulemusic.com.

The event takes place at Charles & Myrtle’s Coffeehouse, which meets at Christ Unity Church, 105 McBrien Road, Chattanooga, Tn. 37411 on Saturday, July 19, at 8 p.m. Suggested donation is $10 at the door.

Marla and Bruce take the name Noctambule from a Robert Service poem about a nocturnal ramble through the back alleys of Paris, which they have set to music and included on their CD Travel in the Shadows. The album’s theme is the 'night journey' - the opportunity to see and experience things differently once the usual sources of light have been extinguished. All the songs are original settings of poetry from a variety of poets-- Tennyson, Neruda, Roethke, St. Vincent Millay, and several from Robert Service. There are two original instrumental pieces as well – a reel and a waltz – as well as one traditional Irish song.

"The irregular phrases, unpredictable meters and strangely beautiful harmonies...overlapping voices, guitars, and mandolins conjure a nocturnal world in which the words of some of our finest poets take shape and snap together magically like recently discovered pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. Travel in the Shadows is folk music at its best--hand made, without a template."
-Alex DeGrassi

Marla Fibish is well known in the Irish music world, bringing a musicality and excitement to the tradition that is seldom heard on the mandolin. She is also known for her compositions, musical settings of poetry and instrumental pieces that have been featured in her work with Out of the Rain, and Three Mile Stone, and on her recording with Jimmy Crowley, The Morning Star. In addition to the mandolin, Marla brings mandola, tenor guitar, bouzouki, accordion, and her alto voice to the Noctambule sound. www.marlafibish.com.

Bruce Victor is an eclectic and accomplished guitarist and composer, who plays several different guitars in several different tunings. Seemingly resisting any single musical genre, he has been labeled a 'poly-stylist,' and has played with The Sirens of San Francisco, The Triplicates, and as a solo performer. He was the founder of The Acoustic Vortex, a non-profit musical organization that produced house concerts, mentored youth performers, and performed benefit concerts for other non-profit organizations. He is also a practicing psychiatrist and was a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry in the School of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco.

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